I’ve been doing research about juicers, and it is somewhat confusing.  I read reviews, I’m learning about the different types of juicers, and I’m watching You Tube videos.

I want a juicer that can juice hard fruits and vegetables like apples and carrots, soft fruits like berries and oranges, and leafy greens.  I also don’t want it to take all morning to make a glass of juice, or to clean the juicer.  I want to spend about $200.00.

I’ve got it narrowed down to a masticating juicer or a centrifugal juicer.  A masticating juicer like this Omega 8005:

uses a single gear or auger that literally chews fruit and vegetable fibers and breaks up the plant cells, resulting in more fiber, enzymes, vitamins and trace minerals. Masticating juicers are generally more efficient than Centrifugal juicers because they can extract more juice from the same amount of food (i.e. the pulp comes out drier). Masticating juicers are very capable at juicing virtually any fruit and vegetable, and single gear juicers will also extract juice from leaves and grasses, like wheatgrass, spinach, lettuce, parsley, and other leafy greens and herbs.

Another benefit of masticating juicers is that they operate at slower speeds (RPMs) than centrifugal juicers, resulting in less foam and heat, which means more nutrition in your glass. The low speed also increases the shelf life of the juicer so that you can generally store your juicer for a few days. Masticating juicers are also more versatile than centrifugal juicers because, in addition to extracting juices, the these juicers also homogenize foods to make baby foods, pates, sauces, nut butters, banana ice creams and fruit sorbets.  (From Harvestessentials.com)

A centrifugal juicer like this Breville Ikon:

is great at juicing most any fruit or vegetable and gets the job done very easily and quickly. However, centrifugal juicers have a more difficult time effectively extracting high yields of juice from grassed and leafy foods like wheatgrass, spinach, lettuce, parsley and other greens and herbs. Centrifugal juicers will extract some juice from these greens, but far less than single or twin gear juicers.

Centrifugal type juicers first grate the fruit or vegetable into a pulp, and then use centrifugal force to push the pulp against a strainer screen by spinning it at a very high RPM.

The advantages of centrifugal juicers are the speed at which a juicing job can be done, especially when juicing with a wide mouth juicer. There are several disadvantages as well. As mentioned above, centrifugal juicers are not effective grass and leaf juicers. Additionally, the pulp generated by a centrifugal juicer is still relatively wet, meaning that some juice goes to waste.  Another disadvantage is the shelf life of the juice from a centrifugal juicer. Because of the high speed required to extract juice, the juice gets aerated, or in other words a great deal of oxygen is dissolved into the juice. The oxygen bubbles in the juice causes the juice to oxidize (spoil) quickly. As a result, the juice from a centrifugal juicer should be consumed right away and can’t be effectively stored for any length of time without loss of nutritional value.  (From Harvestessentials.com)

Watching the You Tube videos makes me more partial to the Breville, because it seems easier to use and requires less force to grind the hard vegetables and fruits.  Although I have read that centrifugal juicers aren’t as good at juicing leafy greens, I see in the videos that both types of juicers juice greens.  The Omega also looks a lot bigger.

This is a video of the Breville Ikon.  It took 2 minutes and 10 seconds to make a glass of juice in this video.  This guy is quick.  Also not bad to look at, too bad he doesn’t come with the juicer.

This is a video of the Omega 8005.  It took 5 minutes and 45 seconds to make a glass of juice in this video, but he is purposely going slow to explain everything.

Here is another video of the Breville Ikon, and it takes 5 minutes and 30 seconds to make a glass of juice here.

It just looks so much easier to me to make juice in the Breville, but if anyone who owns an Omega can chime in I’d love to hear your thoughts.